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Anatomy and Physiology of the Chemoreceptor Trigger Zone and Area Postrema

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Nausea and Vomiting: Mechanisms and Treatment

Part of the book series: Advances in Applied Neurological Sciences ((NEUROLOGICAL,volume 3))

Abstract

It was not until the vomiting centre itself was correctly localized in the bulbar reticular formation that the idea of a separate chemosensory station could be formulated (Borison and Wang 1953). Figure 1 shows where the vomiting centre was thought to be located before 1949 (panel A) and then where it was mapped by Borison and Wang (1949) (panel B). Earlier workers (Hatcher and Weiss 1923) simply assumed that the vomiting centre was inherently responsive to “centrally-acting” emetic drugs applied locally to the ala cinerea on the brain surface; whereas, we used direct electrical stimulation to activate the centre in the parenchymal reticular formation. Indeed, there is at present no neuropharmacological basis for attributing any functional chemoselectivity to the particular medullary neurons that comprise the vomiting centre.

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© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Borison, H.L. (1986). Anatomy and Physiology of the Chemoreceptor Trigger Zone and Area Postrema. In: Davis, C.J., Lake-Bakaar, G.V., Grahame-Smith, D.G. (eds) Nausea and Vomiting: Mechanisms and Treatment. Advances in Applied Neurological Sciences, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70479-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70479-6_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-70481-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-70479-6

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